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A Franklin man has been sentenced to serve nine months in prison for filing false federal tax returns that cost the government $157,263. James David Leckrone, 67, is an attorney specializing in estate planning ...
A question I am frequently asked in e-mail responses to this column is, 'how do I know if the attorney I select to draft my will or trust is sufficiently knowledgeable? I hope it is acknowledged by most ...
I spoke yesterday about the potential conflict of interest that arises when a third party (like a financial planner or accountant) refers a lot of business to an estate planner. A similar, but perhaps more serious, problem arises in the context of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and referrals.
More and more companies make their employees and/or customers sign documents stating that disputes will be settled through the ADR process. That's fair on its face, but as a practical matter, I have some questions about how this works. There are only so many ADR professionals out there -- how is the person who will handle the mediation and/or arbitration chosen? If the person is chosen by the company, then we've got a problem -- if I'm referring 100 cases a year to Bob's ADR Shop, aren't I going to be monitoring closely the outcome of those cases? And aren't I going to hire someone else if I find that Bob's ADR Shop isn't favoring my company as much as I'd like?
Carried to its logical extreme, you get situations like the one detailed in this article (thanks, Tim), about the National Arbitration Forum
I've turned into a political junkie during this election cycle, but one thing I missed -- linked to recently in a post-mortem about sexism and Senator Clinton's loss to Senator Obama -- was this, from January.
Evidently there's a television show called "Morning Joe," and on it someone named Mike Barnicle (the Sailor?) said of Senator Clinton:
"... when she reacts the way she reacts to Obama with just the look, the look toward him, looking like everyone's first wife standing outside a probate court....
I don't think I get it. Does he mean the way a wife would look at her husband in divorce court? Because probate court and divorce court aren't the same thing (at least not in Illinois). It still doesn't make any sense to me.
